Kazakhstan History

Timur Bekmambetov

Timur Bekmambetov (Kazak: Тимур Бекмамбетов, Russian: Тимур Бекмамбетов.) (born 25 June 1961 in Guryev, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union (present Atyrau, Kazakhstan)) is a Russian-Kazakh film and advertisement director living in Russia. He was one of the authors of the popular World History advertisement series for Bank Imperial between 1992 and 1997.

He was the director of the 2004 film Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor), a popular Russian fantasy film based on the book by Sergey Lukyanenko, and its sequel, Day Watch (2006). He also directed the Roger Corman-produced remake of the 1974 film The Arena in 2001, also titled The Arena starring Karen McDougal and Lisa Dergan. He shows a common soldier's view in the film Escape from Afghanistan (1994) that Corman released with English dubbing on DVD in 2002.

He is currently in pre-production on the film Wanted which stars James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman. The film, which is expected to be Bekmambetov's breakout film in Hollywood, is based upon a comic series of the same name written by Mark Millar.

He is going to begin filming the third film in the Night Watch series.

Kazakh